Four Seasons Hotel, Guangzhou, China

View from the top

Four Seasons above Guangzhou International Financial Center opens this year

The new Four Seasons Hotel Guangzhou is set to open later this year. Wilkinson Eyre was responsible for the building design and the interiors were completed by Hirsch Bedner Associates (HBA), which won the job in an international competition. The hotel rises 103 storeys above the Pearl River and occupies the top third of the new Guangzhou International Financial Center by Wilkinson Eyre.

HBA set out with the goal to ‘push the boundaries of design and challenge the perceptions of classic hotel interior’. Every detail of the ultramodern interior was planned to ensure an exceptional guest experience. From the ground floor, guests take dedicated express elevators to the 70th floor lobby, where a dramatic three metre red steel sculpture by Australian artist Matthew Harding appears to float on a sea of watery glass, reflecting the ceiling window 30 floors above.

The naturally lit atrium, surrounded by restaurants and rooms above, is higher than the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London and New York’s Statue of Liberty. The intricately textured screen made of woven metal wraps the interior of the sky-high lobby. In a nod to the hotel brand, the screen is themed around the four seasons, from spring in the basement to fall in the upper reaches. Guest rooms are positioned to take advantage of the views and feature floor to ceiling windows.

HBA describes the design as: “naturally inspired by the 103-storey building they were given and a stylistic bridge between the Four Seasons ‘modern conservatism’ and the building’s avant-garde architecture.” Guangzhou International Financial Center is on the shortlist for this year’s RIBA Lubetkin Prize.